With the modern word processing methods, of rare permanence, the world of documentation has recently experienced substantial expansion. As the requirements or desire for knowledge on the part of individuals increase, the information itself is also increasing, perhaps even more so. The number of papers, reviews, journals and other publications of all kinds, even on a particular subject, is also continuing to expand. The storage or filing of data has become a difficult task. Conversely, the retrieval of data from a stored batch is no easier today.
The key-word solution to this twofold problem is well known. Given the size of data banks, this is a solution that is often no longer appropriate, since querying a key word produces both too many and not enough documents as a result of the failure to take into account both homonymy (non-pertinent documents) and synonymy.
Analysis and search, now microscopic, need to become macroscopic and that is what the applicant is seeking to offer here. Documentalists and archivists have to move from words to concepts, ideas, in other words, to the plurality, the combination and the association of words.